KAVE - Dismal Radiance

Format: CD

Label & Cat.Number: Eibon Records KAV085

Release Year: 2012

Note: deep unorganic (but very smoothly drifting) ambience in the way of dark OÖPHOI, early CAUL, AMON or even silent droning F. LOPEZ... very minimal & totally black.. debut CD by a newcomer from the Netherlands ... "there’s no passion, no emotion, just a spooky and mystical atmosphere of desolation and helplessness" [Ave Noctum]

"Imagine that you are standing in total blackness. There are no people. It’s as if you are standing in a large, cylindrical hall of emptiness where the echoing sounds around you are endless. Haunting shapes whistle by quietly and ominously. Streams of sound blow through as if there’s a wind fuelling this vision of nothingness. There’s the occasional splash of water. Rumblings can be heard in the distance. There’s no passion, no emotion, just a spooky and mystical atmosphere of desolation and helplessness. This black ambiance is the world of Kave, a mysterious band from Holland.

The atmosphere changes very little. “Dismal Radiance” is minimalist, even in comparison to a Blut aus Nord production where a similar soundtrack-type atmosphere prevails. The droning, spooky style is in fact more akin to Yen Pox and Troum. It’s very marginal with this style but I think I prefer the evolving atmospheres which those bands generate. But this is impressive too. Here there is no beauty in this blackness, nor is there any deviation or sign of escape from the bleak and apocalyptic aspect. As this album progresses, we find ourselves deeper inside the chasm with no sign of a beginning or an end. As the rumbling winds continue, the sense of solitude is intensified. We find ourselves staring into space but it’s not a space we can see. This album will neutralise you in its empty blackness.

There are eight tracks but it’s not that you would notice. It’s not stasis but let’s face it – we’re stuck in a void here. Those track titles are revealing and appropriate: “Tomb of the Black Sand”, “Corridors under the Sea”, “Dark Monoliths Rising” and “Encompassing Emptiness” are among them. Of all of them, “Bleak Phantasm” develops the most spiritual quality but as ever it floats away before another set of shapes set in and we are enveloped further in the menacingly tranquil scene.

Yes, there is a subtle evolution over the course of the album but we remain in the same dark place. The power lies in the absence of apparent human control over these frightening and monolithic structures that epitomise the sounds of “Dismal Radiance”. It is a very lonely experience. It is monotonous and desolate. Yet in spite of being depressive, nightmarish and overwhelming in its weightiness, its mesmerising consistency gives it the paradoxical quality of being inspiring. Some of us will see it that way. Others, I suspect, will not want to stomach this ambient and despairing soundscape." [Andrew Doherty / AVE NOCTUM]